


Animism Two

by mrkinch



Category: Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Drabble Collection, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-25
Updated: 2011-04-25
Packaged: 2017-10-18 16:00:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/190598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrkinch/pseuds/mrkinch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The king at the Crossroads, two drabbles</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Crowned

He welcomed the growing darkness that pressed in upon the crossroads, as though limiting further his straightened view would deny its horror. The weeds had grown thick about him through the years he had lain there, his gaze fixed forever upon the road down which his despoilers had swarmed. Now enemies came on all roads, even from the west. He could not raise his eyes to the Mordor storm, but he felt its weight.

Sunlight flared briefly below sickly clouds, warming the carved stone and illuminating the dreadful eastern road on which three tiny figures plodded away into the gloom.


	2. Restoration

His charge was to watch the north, the rising sun warming his right cheek, the setting sun his left. Season followed season bringing only lichen or a frost-grown crack until, under spreading shadow, monsters overwhelmed the Four Roads, fouling his stone and casting his head into the dust.

But horror did not yet cover all. Conies still paused quivering beside his nose. Creatures small and strange crept past, gazing at him in wonder. A great troop of Men that came with noise and trumpets as of old, stopped to restore his vantage. When they continued north he watched in hope.


End file.
